OBX, The Part In Which Charlie Broke His Arm

Growing up in North Carolina, I saw those OBX stickers on the back of almost every single car but had never vacationed there (we were Hilton Head beach-ers)... until we moved back to VA in 2011 and were invited to go with our friends. We had so much fun together that we were beyond certain by the end of the week's vacation that we'd do it again in 2012. And every year after that for the rest of our lives. Heck, by the end of the week we were trying to figure out how to convince our hubbies to take another week's vacation and they were not objecting. Heck, by the end of the week, I was trying to scheme how to sell all the things, pack up and MOVE there. I could run a photography business in the Outer Banks, right? And spend my days catching all the freckles. I don't know what Mike would do. But there has to be oil there somewhere...

Needless to say, our vacations in the OBX are pure heaven. I always want to go and I never want to leave.

This year, however, was going to be different. Different good, but different. Our BFFs who have been our beach partners-in-crime for the last two years moved to Louisiana in June. Being the kind of people of the "more the merrier" persuasion, we invited our friends, the Millers, to drive up from Charlotte to meet us for the first half of the week and my parents to meet us for the second half.  We were really excited to enjoy our favorite place with even more of our favorite people.

Our drive down from DC on Friday July 5th still held up the tradition of stopping at Sonic for the most giant Limeade possible. Extra limes, please. Seriously, how are there no Sonics in DC?

We got to the house early, around 2pm, and Cakes and her Crew were there by 3pm and we were on the water with beers and sand buckets by 4pm.

The water was FREEZING. But the weather was perfect. It was not too hot. Not once. Not the whole week. It stayed in the 80s with a really tolerable amount of humidity. It was perfect.

Saturday morning, we were up and out to the water nice and early. Well, early according to Jenn and Mandie time. {We're not really of the rushing sort.} The kids had so much fun! They dug holes and built sand castles. They played in the waves and rode their boogie boards.

And then, around 5pm, we headed back to the house -- and the Robertsons diverted to the swimming pool for a quick rinse of chlorine since the hot water heater had broken and was being fixed. I remember the swim very vividly -- just the four of us goofing around in the pool before dinner.

I remember the pool so vividly because by 8pm, as we were running around the house trying to find shoes for all the kids so we could walk across the street for Big Bucks ice cream, I heard Charlie scream. And everything about our vacation took a 180. I rolled my eyes at first. I thought he was fighting with Mandie's daughter, Bella, again. But then, he screamed...

"MOM!!! MOM!!! I BROKE MY ARM!!!"

I've never raced down stairs so quickly in my life and when I got to the front deck where everyone was,  I saw him, already snuggled up in Mandie's arms, and then I saw his arm - dangling and bent - clearly no longer in the normal position of arms and bones... and I screamed. I don't think you're supposed to scream when you're the mom because you're supposed to hold it together for your children. But, I screamed. It was terrifying. Seeing my child's arm so clearly broken was one of the most awful things I've ever seen in my entire life.

Thank God for Mandie, Josh and Mike. I was in shock. I couldn't think. I still couldn't even believe it was real and all I wanted was for my baby to be fixed. I was almost just waiting for everything to just go back to normal. Mandie kept asking me questions of what to do and I just kind of stared at her. She stopped asking and just started telling me what to do. We got him in the the backseat of our car with his head in my lap -- and Mike and I drove him the 45 minutes south from Corolla to Nags Head to the Outer Banks hospital. He was a flippin' champ. FORTY FIVE MINUTES and he didn't cry. Not once. He just closed his eyes and zoned out. I was shaking and he was calm as a cucumber.

Bella and Charlie had been playing a game of chase while waiting for the rest of us to get ready -- and they had climbed onto the top bunk in the kid's room. Bella went to teasingly kiss Charlie and he decided to jump off the top bunk to get away {oh, how funny this will be in 7 years when getting kisses from girls will be all he can think about}. His athletic shorts caught the rail and turned him sideways as he went down. He stuck an arm out to break the fall and it snapped in half under the weight of the fall.

The hospital was amazing. The nurses and staff were just wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Charlie is a worrier and they were kind and patient with him. I even noticed that our one nurse - a big guy with a deep voice and dry humor - was gently rubbing his hand while calming him down. He didn't have to give comfort in that way - but he did - and I found it to be so sweet. Truly caring.

After some meds, and then some more meds after barfing up the first dose, and some Xrays, they called in the Orthopedic Surgeon who showed up wearing a tan, a tshirt, board shorts and tennis shoes. This made us laugh. Dr. Matt. Wearing the board shorts. Only at a beach hospital...

Mike later asked me if I found him attractive {I did} because I wouldn't stop talking to him. But I told Mike, "Yes, I noticed he was good looking, but more importantly, I noticed he was in his beach attire... and I wasn't going to stop talking to him until I found out where he got his medical degree." :) He went to Georgetown. So, we were all good. Hot doctors with medical degrees from Georgetown may set my child's bones in board shorts.

They gave him an IV - which he screamed louder over than the actual break - and dosed him up with a drug called Ketamine, which would basically make him high as a kite for awhile so they could set the bones back in place and he'd have no memory of it.

They got him all fixed up and set in a cast and sent us home. The doctor said there was absolutely no reason to stop our vacation. Apparently, the ER in Nags Head sees broken bones constantly - and LOTS of them are bunk bed broken bones - and they didn't really think it was that big of a deal at all.

On Sunday, Charlie and Daddy stayed in the house to chill out and kind of, get over the previous day's trauma while the rest of us headed down to the beach.

We had scheduled a sitter for Sunday night so the four of us could go out without the kiddos. We decided to keep the sitter even though our big guy was feeling less-than-100%. We've had the same sitter in the OBX for three years and she's the BEST. I felt completely comfortable having her take care of my little patient.

It was really so good for the mama-soul to have an evening out to de-stress.

And on Monday morning, Charlie was feeling much better and he decided he'd get up and out at the mention of Duck Donuts and the Currituck lighthouse.

Yup, he climbed up 103 feet to the top of the lighthouse. Kids, y'all. Broken bones one day. Tops of lighthouses the next.

Then we said our sad good-byes to Mandie and the Miller clan and spent a little time at the pool that afternoon. Daddy pitched a ball to Charlie and they played left-handed catch! Papa & Blah arrived at the house around dinner time and brought a new Lego set to cheer up Charlie.

July 4th

We didn't do much to celebrate the 4th of July. Life was just too crazy. We were packing up for our trip to the OBX on the 5th so we decided to let it kind of slide by this year.

However, we got a little festive on the 3rd when our neighborhood put on a fireworks show. We grabbed a few packs of sparklers from the fireworks stand and had some sparkly fun while waiting for the show.

I should have grabbed my tripod. I knew I wanted certain shots of sparklers and I knew I'd need a slow shutter speed to get them and I knew my hand (or any hand) couldn't keep the camera steady enough at such slow speeds to avoid blur. But noooooo, I, of course, forgot the tripod.

A good trick for avoiding blur at a slow shutter speed without a tripod there to steady your camera is to brace the camera on a body part. Since I was sitting, I pulled my knees up to my chest and braced it on my knees.

Want to take similar pictures of sparkler trails? It's all about the shutter speed. I just played around with mine while we sat there. I tested longer shutter speeds and checked to see how much of the trail I captured. If it wasn't enough, I slowed the speed down some more. The longer you leave the shutter open on your camera, the more time it has to capture the image. You want your subject to stay as still as possible or else they will be blurry (Charlie was MUCH better at this than Henry) and have them just move the sparkler without moving their body.

If you want to capture the sparks of the sparkler and not the trails, then in that case you will need a fast shutter speed so it can quickly grab those fast-flying sparks!

We got lots of fun shots!

Henry was really wary of the sparklers at first. But, since his brother was doing it, he came around and wanted to do it too. His sparkler trails crack me up. Absolutely crazy, just like him.




And then it was time for the fireworks! My very favorite fireworks are the ones that look like champagne-colored chandeliers!

Charlie, my sweet worrier, was very concerned about our proximity to Dulles airport and if the fireworks show would be dangerous for the airplanes. We assured Charlie that there had to be permits and paperwork and that certainly the airport was aware of all this and that the pilots would fly much higher than our little fireworks show by the time they took off from Dulles anyway -- and very soon after calming his fears - a plane flew RIGHT by our fireworks. Ha!

Happy {belated} Birthday, America!

Baltimore B&O Museum

We have been wanting to visit the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore for quite awhile. It's a bit of a hike from NOVA but Hubster had an early flight out of Maryland on a Friday in late June, so we decided we'd drive him there and then make our way to finally see the trains.

Mike's flight was crazy early out of BWI and the museum didn't open until 10, so we decided to eat breakfast at Miss Shirleys Cafe in the Inner Harbor. Holy good lord almighty. What an amazing breakfast joint. I ordered the fried green tomatoes as an appetizer and then a giant veggie egg-white omelet with cheesy grits for the main dish. I was too stuffed to finish even a quarter of it... and there has not been a day that's passed that I have not wished I'd risked some sort of food poisoning to box it up and leave in my hot car all day so I could've finished it all. It was. That. Good.

I'm sort of twitching over the thought of going back for the Maryland Omelet with lump crab meat and dusted with Old Bay. Um, yes please.

After breakfast, we had a short drive to the museum.

Aside for the major flaw of it being in Baltimore, the museum is amazing!! Like, AMAZING! Charlie has been train-obsessed since he was two - and even though he will deny it now and brush off all his willinginess to see trains as "doing it for Henry", he just loves the heck out of them still. And this museum is literally little-boy heaven.

Pulling into the {free} parking lot, several huge trains lined the parking spaces.

How cute is this? Charlie thought up the pose and the words and insisted I instagram it! :)

The museum is basically a giant roundhouse, which for anyone who has never had a train-obsessed child, this is where the trains were housed when not in use during the old-timey days of train travel. Displayed trains are placed in a circle of chronological order from the origin of the B&O rail line with covered wagons and progresses through the civil war as they circle around the room. Side note: chronological order is my favorite order.

I was completely intrigued and interested. Unfortunately, little boys don't care much about the history, or following the order... they just want to walk through all the things {quickly} and climb on whatever is permitted for climbing.

My most favorite cars were the passenger cars. Sans kids, I could have spent a rather sizeable amount of nerdy time looking at all the details in the passenger cars, especially the ones that were used in the Civil War for the soldiers. I've always been fascinated with people so it was absolutely amazing to see what sort of accommodations were available back in the 1800s. What did people do back then?



In between some of the trains was a giant play area of Thomas toy trains. It took all my patience to convince the boys that we would get to those toys AFTER we looked at all the trains. And it took all of their patience to stick it out.

When we finally made it to the play area {which I was really avoiding because, omg, the school groups...}, Charlie was totally into it supporting his brother's interest in toy trains. I actually thought the play area was pretty amazing. They had four or five Thomas train tables so there were enough trains and tables for all the kids. They had train books and train puzzles and train dress-up outfits. But really, for my boys... it was all about the train toys.

And then, at 11:30am, it was time for our ride on a REAL train! Yup... our admission to the museum came with tickets to ride about a mile west and then back again on a MARC passenger train. Like I said, little boy flippin' heaven.

Henry's face when the train started to move, y'all. Priceless!!!

Charlie was so interested in what was being explained over the loudspeaker that he "sssh-ed" me about 15 times. He's just so adorable and nerdy-licious. I love how much he likes to learn.

That whole 20 minute ride is hard, work, huh, Henry?? :)

Returning from the ride, we walked over to the North Building which houses trains so big that they wouldn't fit in the roundhouse! Seriously, they were massive. They were diesels built in the 40s and 50s and, as the guy who worked there explained, they were terribly inefficient -- even though they were extremely beautiful machines. There were lots of guys all over the place who were extremely kind and helpful and excited to tell you all about the trains.

Also, the low light ooey-gooey photographic goodness. So. Much. Photog. Fun.

I was so pleased with the "SAVE COAL" sign. I'm sure it wasn't exactly meant to be environmentally friendly like I read it to be, but I still thought it was cute.

Hungry for lunch, and believing we had seen it all, we headed out for the day. It was only once we got into the parking lot that we noticed that we missed the platforms where several trains were open for walking through! We almost went back inside, but we always need a reason to go back! And go back, we will!!

I Think We'll Go To Boston, Part 3

I love being an auntie. I get to do all of the fun stuff, like mail presents just because I feel like it, and smother them in kisses and tickles, and I get to be the one to hold them during special religious ceremonies, at which I am deemed their Godmother. Yeah. Boom.

Two years ago, I held my Olly-bear through his baptism. This June, I held my Westie-bug through his.

It's probably completely improper to photograph in church...?

My brother and sister-in-law have a lovely church in beautiful Arlington, MA and we have attended so many special moments there with them: their wedding and the baptisms of both of our nephews. The red door and the large historic bricks are swoon-worthy. It's a beautiful place for Sundays and families.

If you're ever in Boston, you must make a short trek to Arlington for Blue Ribbon BBQ. We have it every time we visit my brother because it is amazing! We get really nervous that there won't be enough so we order the meal for 6 to feed the 4 of us and it's always too much -- even though we stuff ourselves to near burst! Just imagine how much my brother ordered for the whole family post-baptsism lunch!? Oh, how it was so good.

Great news, DC friends!!! We recently discovered when my brother came to DC and we went to order Williards BBQ in Dulles that the menus were eerily identical. Turns out that Williard's here in VA, which is two minutes from my house, is owned by the BROTHER of Blue Ribbon BBQ which is two minutes from my brother's house in MA. Does anyone else think thats a super weird thing?? It's like God wants my brother and I to share in the BBQ goodness.

BBQ, y'all. It brings a family together. I had to take a picture.

Remember my mother's day post about my mom's vanity license plate?? Blah x 4! 

After lunch, it's a sort of tradition (meaning, we did it the one other time after Oliver's baptism) to walk to Spy Lake Park. Charlie loves this park and I totally see why! A beautiful park overlooking a beautiful lake with a small, sandy beach for dipping toes and a playground with a zip line! :)

The boys had so much fun!

My boys are really into baseball and Henry loves a good game of whiffle-ball. Mike couldn't resist bringing a bat and a ball to the park and getting all the boys going on a game.

Henry is AMAZING at whiffle ball. Well, at hitting the ball. He almost never misses. But no matter where he hits the ball, he thinks he gets a home run and runs all the bases. And it's so cute, no one dares tell him any different.

And... then the battery on my camera kicked out before Charlie or Olly stepped up to bat. Yay for iphone to the rescue!

I Think We'll Go To Boston, Part 2

My ONE plan for Boston was to go to the Public Garden to visit the ducklings and ride on the swan boats.

On Saturday, all my Bean-town dreams came true! Well, 50% of my dreams, at least. We didn't make it to see the actual brass duckling statues, but I rode on the swan boats, so I'm counting it as a partially successful trip that gives me a reason to go back. The weather was perfect! And aside from it being such a beautiful Saturday in June which brought about 5 billion other tourists all wanting to do the same thing... it was wonderful! The gardens are amazing and tucked right in the middle of the city off CHARLES ST.


My parents flew into Boston as we were down in the city so they cabbed it over and found us just as we were swan-boating under the bridge! Hi, Mom!!!

After the boats, we took the crew over to Quincy Market to have Lobster Rolls for lunch. It was crowded and chaotic -- but uber-delish! And very Boston-y!

The last time we visited the Quincy Market, Charlie had an ice cream cone covered in blue sprinkles. This time, we HAD to have the same thing. We took our cones outside and I, of course, started taking pictures. And then my brother and my hubby made fun of me by taking pictures of me taking pictures.

And being the Saturday before Father's Day, the kids were all over their Papa. Well, they'd be all over their Papa anyway, because they all adore him.

Aside from seeing the sights... we also spend a lot of time on our Boston visits just snuggling and playing with our nephews/cousins. This is definitely our most favorite part of every trip.